


Contagious

by Duck_Life



Category: Lab Rats: Elite Force (TV)
Genre: First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic, Star Trek References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-27 02:53:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13871550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: A mission goes wrong and Chase gets infected with a plethora of diseases. As he sits in quarantine waiting for Douglas to develop an antidote, Kaz keeps him company.





	Contagious

For the smartest man in the world, Chase spends a lot of his life feeling incredibly stupid.

Today is one of those days. The Elite Force was on what should have been a routine mission, and it actually looked like they were going to be able to do some good. Oliver tracked down one of the outposts where Mighty Med had performed some of its rare disease research. After the hospital was destroyed the outpost had been abandoned, but it still contained valuable information about treating superheroes and aliens. 

It also had supplies of special creams specifically for treating plasma blasts, vaccines to protect patients from rare strains of space- and superhero-based illnesses and pills to fight off a whole host of alien fevers. 

What they didn’t exactly count on were the rows and rows of vials containing live strains of several strange and dangerous viruses. 

And Chase definitely didn’t count on tripping over an extension cord and knocking over the whole shelf, shattering almost all the vials. He gets doused in seven different diseases. It’s like crashing into a display case at the Sephora fragrance section, except all the cologne can kill you. 

His first instinct is to protect his team. 

He throws up a forcefield sphere around himself and the wreckage, panic making him move fast. “Everybody out! I don’t know if any of these viruses are airborne but we can’t take the risk.”

“Chase,” Bree says, moving toward him worriedly.

Chase stares at her desperately. “Bree, please get them out of here. Then worry about me.” 

So Bree speeds Kaz and Oliver outside. (Skylar flies.) And then she worries about Chase. Douglas, as it turns out, is prepared for this kind of situation. 

“When you create as many fatal viruses as I have, you develop a few safeguards,” Douglas explains about twenty minutes later when he pulls up in a huge van decked out with expandable quarantine tents and a portable airlock. “I’ll get him back to mission command where I can work on an antidote.”

“Cool, it’s like that scene in  _ E.T. _ ,” Kaz comments, watching Douglas set up the big plastic corridor from the van to the outpost door. 

Skylar shudders. “I hate that movie.”

“Aw, is that because you related to the alien?” Bree asks.

“No, it’s just that bicycles really freak me out,” Skylar admits. “How do they stay up? It makes no sense.”

“It’s true,” Oliver says. “She had to leave the room when we were binge-watching  _ Stranger Things _ .”

Chase finally emerges from the outpost center with Douglas, outfitted in a yellow hazmat suit, escorting him. He looks miserable. “You’ll be okay, Chase,” Bree swears. He just gives her a tight-lipped half smile that doesn’t reach his eyes, and he goes with Douglas into the van. 

Douglas transports Chase back to mission command to start figuring out how to undo the damage from the viruses. The rest of the team flies home, with Skylar carrying Bree. As soon as they’re back they all stampede downstairs to check on Chase. 

“I brought some of the research and vaccines from the outpost that I think might help,” Oliver says, handing a black med bag to Douglas, who thanks him and carries it to the cyberdesk. “Chase, buddy, how ya feeling?”

Even though Chase’s capsule was airtight and would have even boosted his immune system, Douglas didn’t want to put Chase in there while he was infected in case the viruses lingered, or worse, messed up the capsule’s technology. If the strains hit his bionic infrastructure and mutated, they could wreak havoc on any compatible electronic they touched. 

So Chase was in a room that Donald had originally intended to be a prison cell. It was bleak and colorless, but it was airtight. That was what mattered. 

“I’m fine,” Chase lies. He’s sitting on the white bench in the white room, watching his friends, his team, through a big sheet of glass. A speaker set into the side of the wall lets him talk to them. “I feel like an idiot.”

“You’re  _ not _ an idiot,” Kaz says quickly, putting a hand on the glass. He leaves smudgy fingerprints on the pristine surface. “Man, if I had a nickel for every supervirus I ever infected myself with…” He trails off when he notices Chase’s red-rimmed eyes, like he was crying in the van on the way here. “You’re going to be okay, Chase.”

“That’s what I said,” Bree points out, shooting Chase a thumbs-up through the glass. “You and I have been infected with stuff before, too, remember?” She’s thinking of Krane’s Doomsday virus, of the black skull that sent the two of them on a murderous rampage a couple Halloweens ago. “And we always bounce back. You’ll be out of there in no time.” 

“Absolutely,” Skylar agrees. “And even if you die, that’s not so bad! I died once. It was fine.” 

“ _ Skylar _ ,” Bree hisses.

“What? I’m trying to make him feel better.” 

“We should let you get some rest,” Oliver says, ushering Skylar and Bree back toward mission command. He smiles apologetically at Chase, who gives him a little wave as he and the girls walk away. 

Kaz stays. 

“You can go with them,” Chase says, standing up and walking closer to the glass. “I’ll be fine, I swear.”

“Nope,” Kaz says. He still has a hand on the glass. “I know you. And more accurately, I know me. And if it were me who were sick, I wouldn’t want to be alone.”

“I just don’t want everyone worrying over me,” Chase says. “I feel…” He’s about to call himself an idiot again, but Kaz gives him a warning stare. “Just, we have actual problems to focus on. And now I’m adding more to the pile.”

“That’s what a team is,” Kaz says. “It’s a bunch of people putting all their problems together in a big heap and then tackling them together. You’re my problem, Chase. And I’m yours.” 

Chase smiles, and even though he’s miserable and scared, it’s nice to have Kaz there with him. Shuffling up toward the glass, he places his own hand over Kaz’s, their fingertips separated by just centimeters of glass. 

“Hey,” Kaz says, “you ever seen  _ Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan _ ?” He’s thinking about the scene at the end where Spock and Kirk share their final goodbyes through the barrier of a radiation chamber. 

Chase laughs. “You know, in some ways you’re an even bigger nerd than I am.”

* * *

 

Bree marches into mission command, her tablet under one arm. Douglas is working frantically over the cyberdesk. “How’s it going?”

He mumbles something to her that just sounds like stressed-out gibberish. Then he says, “You know, just one virus, I can probably cure! Two, sure. Chase has seven different viruses all fighting over which one is going to take him out first.”

Bree frowns. “You’ll figure it out,” she says, because he needs to hear it… and because she needs to believe it. “You always do.”

When she returns to the quarantine room, Kaz is asleep, slumped against the glass and Chase is sitting in the cell, deep in thought. 

“Hey,” Bree says softly, tapping on the glass. It’s like her little brother is a fish in an aquarium. She can already see the Mulligan stew of diseases brewing in him; his eyes have gone bloodshot and there’s a sheen of sweat on his face. “You okay?”

He can’t lie to her. “No.”

“You will be,” Bree says. And then she spins the tablet around— Adam and Leo are on the screen. “I called them up on videochat.” 

“Hey, Chase,” Leo says from a thousand miles away. He and Adam wave. “You’ve got this.” 

“Yeah,” Adam adds. “I mean quarantine probably sucks, but at least it beats detention with Perry, remember that?”

Weakly, Chase smiles. He may be isolated, but at least he’s not really alone.

* * *

 

Kaz startles awake again a couple hours later with an unsophisticated coughing-squawking noise. “Whaa? Oh, Chase. Right.”

“You should get some sleep,” Chase tells him through the glass. “What time is it, anyway?” 

Ordinarily he’s supposed to be able to tell the time with just his bionics, but the diseases must be messing him up. “Uh, one,” Kaz says, checking his phone. The mission to the outpost was ten hours ago; it feels more like ten years. 

“Yeah, go get some sleep in your bed,” Chase says. “I’ll be fine.” 

“No chance,” Kaz says, pushing himself up into a cross-legged position. Chase slides off the bench and onto the floor so he can be level with Kaz. “I’m not gonna leave you alone. So… you wanna play a game?” 

“A game?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” Kaz says. “Get your mind off, like, dying and stuff.”

Chase can’t really  _ get _ his mind off of anything. At any given moment his mind is cycling through at least thirteen different worst-case scenarios, and that’s on days when he  _ hasn’t _ been infected with a slew of alien plagues. 

But. The sound of Kaz’s voice does make him feel better. Having Kaz here makes him feel better. So, sure. A game. 

“I ask you a question, and you can answer it or say pass. If you pass, I get to ask you another question but if you answer it, you get to ask me a question, and so on,” Kaz says. “Sound good?” Chase nods. “Sweet. Okay, um, question one… Favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?”

Chase stares at him. “I have no idea what that is.”

“So that’s a pass,” Kaz says. “Alright, who’s your favorite  _ Star Trek _ captain?”

“Picard,” Chase says quickly. “Now I go?” Kaz nods. “If you could have any powers besides the ones you already have, which would you want?”

Kaz thinks about it. “Time travel,” he says finally. “I want to be able to fix things that I’ve screwed up. And also shoot Hitler. Ooh, and Andrew Jackson.” Chase lets out a startled laugh. “My turn. Who was your first kiss?”

“Pass.”

“If you could relive one day of your life, which would it be?”

Chase chews his lip while he thinks about it. “My first day of high school,” he says finally. “Who was  _ your _ first kiss?”

“My friend Jordan,” Kaz says. “It was a disaster. What’s your favorite food?”

“Carob. It has a lot of nutritional value.” Kaz makes a face. “Okay, fine, what’s yours?”

“Popcorn,” Kaz says with no hesitation. “What’s your most embarrassing moment?”

Chase opens his mouth like he’s going to answer, but then he thinks better of it and snaps his mouth shut. “Pass.”

“Would you ever get a tattoo?”

“Absolutely not,” Chase says. He worries the sensation would be hell on his sensitive nervous system. And besides, he could never pick something to get etched into his skin for his whole life. “Who was the first famous person you had a crush on?”

“Heath Ledger,” Kaz replies. “May he rest in peace. What’s your biggest regret?”

“Trusting the wrong person,” Chase says evasively. “Did you used to have a crush on Oliver?”

“Pass.”

“Do you think I’m going to die?”

“ _ Chase _ .” Kaz tries to scooch closer to the glass, almost pressing his face up against it. Chase looks exhausted and scared. “Absolutely not. You’re going to live, Douglas is going to fix you up. And then we’ll get you some that carrion or whatever food you said you like—”

“Carob.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Kaz watches Chase try to smile, but he looks so weak and worried that it just gets swallowed up in his clammy skin and dry, cracked lips. He curls in on himself, and Kaz wishes he could be in there with him. 

Well. What’s stopping him?

Kaz gets up, hearing his knees crack as he straightens his legs, and he goes to open the heavy door into the cell. Chase wigs out.

“Hey, hey, you can’t do that,” he says, running to the side of the cell. “Kaz, stop it.”

“What? Sorry can’t hear you, soundproof glass,” Kaz says, wedging open the door and stepping inside. 

Chase is watching him like he’s a ghost. “Don’t,” he says, tears threatening to spill. “I don’t want you to get sick, Kaz, I don’t want you to die.”

“And I don’t want you to be in here alone,” Kaz says. “So I guess we’re at an impasse.” He grins. “That’s a chess word. I saw it on the internet yesterday.” 

Chase stares at him, completely at a loss. He wants Kaz out of this room. He also wants Kaz closer. He doesn’t know what he wants.

His vision gets swimmy then, and he sinks down, catching himself on the bench. “Whoa, Chase,” Kaz says, kneeling down beside him. “C’mere, I gotcha.” He lowers Chase gently to the floor and sits with him there, propping himself up with his back to the wall, propping Chase up against his chest. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he promises, scrubbing a hand through Chase’s oily hair. Even rapidly degenerating from a hoard of diseases, Chase still looks handsome to him. 

“You should go,” Chase says, even as he deliriously snuggles up against him. “I don’t want you getting sick.”

“I was a doctor, Chase,” Kaz reminds him, running a hand up and down Chase’s arm, trying to warm him up and get rid of the goosebumps prickling across his skin. He already looks so much sicker than he did even an hour ago. “I’m not afraid of sickness.” He  _ is _ afraid of Chase being sick, though, of Chase looking this ghostly pale and miserable. “Hey, hey, make me a deal, okay? You get better. You come back from this? And I’ll take you to one of those gross, fancy vegan places and we can get, like, acai bowls.”

“I’m… pretty sure you’re pronouncing that wrong,” Chase says, slumping against Kaz and looking up at him. “But it sounds fun.”

“That can… that can be our official first date,” Kaz says quietly, his arms looped around Chase, watching the other boy fade fast. “Because to be honest,  _ this _ isn’t exactly a stellar first date.”

“Is this a date?” Chase says, tilting his head back further.

“I guess that’s up to you.”

They both go for it at the same time. Kaz cranes his head down and Chase tilts back and their lips meet. Even if those viruses aren’t communicable by air they’re  _ definitely _ communicable by this, but Kaz doesn’t care. Chase is in his arms, Chase is kissing him back, and it’s perfect. Chase is perfect. 

Chase is smiling when he pulls away. “You just Spiderman-kissed me.”

“Yeah, you’re  _ definitely _ the bigger nerd,” Kaz smirks. Chase rolls his eyes and then pushes himself up so he can face Kaz. His sweaty hands fumble to grab the front of Kaz’s t-shirt and he pulls the other boy closer to kiss him again. 

That’s how Douglas finds them. 

“Oh, come on!” he calls through the speaker, exasperated. “I finalized the antidote! You know, if you’re interested in that sort of thing! But now I guess I need to get another syringe.” He scowls at Kaz and Chase, who both look sheepish. “Kaz, I think we may need to go over quarantine protocols again.”

“Hey, it’s your fault,” Kaz calls back. “You shouldn’t’ve made your bionic superhuman this good-looking.”

Even though he’s shivering and sick, Chase still manages to blush.    
  



End file.
